It was a new day in every way on the second day of New Zealand Bloodstock's Karaka Premier Sale today, with a renewed vigour ringside as the broad buying international bench stepped up a gear to compete for the remaining Premier Sale lots on offer.

The headline act came early in the afternoon, when the highly-anticipated colt by Fastnet Rock from Nureyev's Girl (Nureyev) at Lot 353, a half-brother to Group 1 winner King's Rose (Redoute's Choice), was knocked down to David Ellis for $1,750,000.

With vendor Sir Patrick Hogan tipping this colt to be the star of the show before selling started at Karaka this week, there were high expectations for his salering appearance, and spectators weren't disappointed, with a heated bidding duel between underbidders Coolmore Stud and leading New Zealand buyer, David Ellis of Te Akau Stud.

Lot 353 $1,750,000 colt Lot 353 with purchaser David Ellis

The sixth seven-figure yearling ever bought by Ellis at Karaka, he admits he paid more than he expected he would.

"I did expect a high price for this colt, and I thought I would get him for about $1.5 million, but the others went beyond that.

"I wanted to secure him for the New Zealand racing and breeding industry, it is essential that we retain horses like this in New Zealand. He is an outstanding individual and the fact that he's by such a great sire out of a Nureyev mare gives him the potential to win Group 1 races.

"He is already 90% sold with the remaining 10% to be sold this week and I don't anticipate that will be very difficult to do.

"He will be trained by Jason Bridgman with a racing campaign intended to maximise his stud potential. If he's as good as his sister we will be very happy."

David Ellis becomes the leading buyer of the Premier Sale with 27 yearlings bought for $6,262,500 at an average of $231,944. The leading New Zealand buyer at Karaka for the last seven years, Ellis increased his spend significantly on last year where he bought 25 Premier Sale yearlings for $4,433,500.

"I think it has been a very successful Sale with terrific competition on the real athletes. We found it difficult to buy the good horses and think it has been a very successful two days," commented Ellis.

"To achieve that in a recession reflects very highly on the New Zealand industry. New Zealand Bloodstock, in my opinion, can take great heart that even in very difficult economic times horses have still sold well to a huge international buying bench."

The Hong Kong Jockey Club - represented at Karaka by Mark Richards - was once again very active, buying 12 yearlings for $2,655,000 to become the second leading buyer of the Sale. The HKJC paid a top price of $350,000 for two colts, one by Encosta de Lago (Lot 66) and one by Thorn Park (Lot 432). Their purchases are destined for the Club's International Sales next season.

Particularly active was the vast Australian buying bench, with the likes of Gai Waterhouse & James Harron, John Chalmers, Bart Cummings, Duncan Ramage, Hawkes Racing and John O'Shea all filling spots on the top 10 leading buyers' list. Not far away were fellow Australians Mark Kavanagh and Segenhoe Thoroughbreds, adding to a total spend by the Australian buyers of $26.6m so far.

New Zealand agents Mulcaster Bloodstock, buying for Australian clients, and Michael Wallace, buying with Michael Freedman for Singapore, were amongst the few active local buyers in the top 20, and contributed to a total domestic spend of $13.6m.

With a much stronger day's trade, at the conclusion of the two-day Premier Sale 350 yearlings have sold for $54,137,000 at an average of $154,677 and clearance of 74%. The median for the two-day session is $120,000.

New Zealand Bloodstock Co-Managing Director Petrea Vela said there were some heartening results from the day.

"We were very pleased to see the market strengthen from yesterday, with a number of the better pedigreed horses coming through the ring today. We have been thrilled with the buyer turnout at Karaka and there was plenty of good competition on the appealing lots.

"It's disappointing not to have been able to get the clearance rate up a bit higher but hopefully over the course of the next couple of days there'll be more sales completed from this session."

With a $1.75m colt it is no surprise that Fastnet Rock tops the sires table for the Premier Sale with eight sold for an average of $422,500.

The leading New Zealand-based sire was Zabeel with 21 sold for an average of $233,810 and a top price of $600,000 paid by Ger Beemsterboer of The Netherlands for the filly from La Quinta Gold at Lot 281. Beemsterboer has already enjoyed success in New Zealand with his Group 1 winning Fastnet Rock filly Planet Rock.

With a host of freshman sires making their yearling sale debut this season, the leading first season sire is Group 1 Golden Slipper winner Sebring, with six yearlings sold at an average of $155,000. This included a top price of $260,000 for Lot 290 bought by Hawkes Racing.

For the 31st year in a row Sir Patrick Hogan's Cambridge Stud becomes the leading vendor by aggregate, with 43 yearlings sold for $10,820,000 at an average of $251, 628.

Mark and Shelley Treweek's Lyndhurst Farm, with 12 entries in the Premier Sale, was the leading vendor by average with nine sold for $2,385,000 at an average of $265,000. That included a top price of $650,000 paid yesterday by Willie Leung for the High Chaparral colt at Lot 130.

The second top price of the day was $800,000 paid early in proceedings for the High Chaparral colt from La Souvenir at Lot 284, the three-quarter brother to So You Think. It was also snapped up by leading Hong Kong bloodstock agent Willie Leung, for his Hong Kong client Mr P So.

"I had two clients looking for top stayers and I think this lot and yesterday's High Chaparral that I bought were the best High Chaparrals in the Sale.

"I am very lucky to have two clients looking for that type of horse and that I was able to get them what they wanted.

"Overall the quality of the Sale was good and this year there were more horses suitable for Hong Kong which is why there are more Hong Kong buyers here at the Sale this year."

Selling continues tomorrow at Karaka with the first day of the three-day Select Sale - Lots 517 to 725 - commencing at 11am. The session will be streamed live online at http://www.nzb.co.nz/.